'I tell my friends and relatives of my search for a husband,' he says. 'I think I have found an accountant who I will meet. If Shrivali likes him she will marry him, it will still be her choice.' Devi is 66 and he married when he was 18 and his wife 13. It is obviously still a happy marriage: 'Everything that is mine is hers and hers mine,' says Devi.

I was staying with the Shrimali family as a paying guest. Devi is happy to take in foreigners. 'I only charge 30 rupees (HK$8) a night. I don't do it for the money, but to share my culture.

'I am willing to talk to them about anything they want to know, architecture, religion, astronomy.' His wife, who speaks no English, happily acquiesces to the demands of his hobby.

As we discussed marriage, we drank spicy chai which his wife had just made by boiling water, milk, tea leaves, freshly mashed ginger, cloves and black pepper.

The Shrimali household consists of Devi, his wife, his son, daughter-in-law and nine-month-old grand-daughter. Devi is very proud of his other son, who has emigrated to America to work as a computer engineer.

He is married to an Indian and they have two children who will grow up as American citizens. Devi went to visit his son last year and was not impressed by America.

'No one had time for each other, no one would sit around and talk. They are all so concerned with money. Here in India you can relax and do nothing. If my son didn't work, I would still feed him.' The Shrimali family have lived in the same house, which is made from mud, for 200 years. Each generation has added another extension to cope with the extended family.

Devi put plaster on the walls and added another room. He is very proud of the name of his house, 'The Palace and Park View Guest house', as it commands a view of the imposing palace of Udaipur and the less imposing park next door.

Just before the front door there is a well where the local villagers get their drinking water. The house is sparsely decorated, there are few pictures; only some photographs of the grand-daughters.

The television is in the corner, by the bed where Shrivali sleeps, and there are no extras like the bright Rajasthani mirrored cushion covers which abound in the tourist shops.

Plates are just the simplest, cheapest stainless steel. There is no running hot water to have a shower. I had to wait 25 minutes for water in a bucket to be heated for bathing.

My room had a bed with a mattress, a pillow and a blanket. There was a sink with a mirror outside, no windows, just shutters. No shoes were allowed in the kitchen, a long narrow stone room. The only gadget was a pressure cooker.

Dinner consisted of chapatis, lentils and some cold vegetables. Shrivali, as a worshipper of Shiva, had fasted all day and was just breaking it. We ate at seven and after watching the world news, read in English by a newsreader wearing a sari, retired for the night.

The next morning I sat outside in the hot sun under the shadow of the Palace and was fed on delicious hot buttered parathas and spicy chai. Shrivali showed me her salwars trousers and matching dress which she had just collected from the tailors.

She laughed at my suggestion of her buying clothes from the shops lining the main street. Though made of Indian fabrics the dresses are for foreigners. No Indian women would dress in skimpy tops and see-through trousers adorned with prancing elephants and camels.

I showed her the dress which I had made up by a tailor in a particularly fetching pink and yellow patterned cotton and she told me that I was walking around in a bedspread! Over our lunch of maize porridge, Shrivali's married friend showed me her toe rings and Mrs Shrimali also had toe rings and thick white bangles which most married women wear.

We talked about clothes, jewellery and husbands, or in my case the lack of them. They were fascinated by the set-up in the West, but did not envy it in the least.

'Doing the sights' in India and meeting other travellers is rewarding but I had felt I was trapped in a huge theme park of temples and bus horror stories. I wanted to find out about the day-to-day lives of Indians. Staying with an Indian family was vastly rewarding and very easy to arrange.

The paying guest scheme, which only operates in Rajasthan, was set up in 1991 as an opportunity for people to get an insight into local family culture.

Thirteen cities, among the most notable, Jaipur, Jodphur, Jaisalmer and Ajmer, now take part in the scheme, which is organised by the tourist office in each city.

A representative of the Department of Tourism in Udaipur told me proudly: 'In Udaipur there are 180 families who offer the scheme.

'We make sure each house is in a good locality and near places of interest to tourists. There must be not more than four rooms available for hire, otherwise the feeling of cultural exchange is lost, and the place becomes a hotel.' The most basic room where there is only a mattress and no beds starts at 50 rupees (HK$12). Last year more than 15,000 tourists, including Indians, took advantage of the Government's scheme. The only people who aren't too happy are the hotels.